Kelly's senses alert her to be suspicious of Valerie's true unwholesome colors when she catches her smoking pot and she naturally makes a big fuss about it. But to Kelly's surprise, she cannot get a sympathetic ear. Steve refuses to believe Kelly, thinking that she's just jealous. Even Brandon is skeptic and tells Kelly to give Valerie the benefit of a doubt. However, Donna doesn't seem to care and tells Kelly that what Valerie does in her spare time is none of their business. Later when Kelly sees Valerie at the Peach Pit drinking and flirting with Dylan, she immediately tells Steve. But when then both confront her, Valerie (a true master of manipulation) convinces Steve (but not Kelly) that it was Dylan who made a pass at HER. All in the meantime, Valerie begins to grow suspicions of Dylan's cash-flow state when she discovers him stealing money from the Peach Pit to support himself. Meanwhile, Steve decides to revitalize the Peach Pit by throwing a rave party to boost business. While working on a video project with David and Clare, Donna meets a musician and carpenter named Ray Pruit. Also, Andrea juggles college and child care.

Brandon, now the new student body president of CU, has his first challenge when he is pressed into action by some human-rights activist students who are against the chancellor's friend Quintaro, a visiting Asian dignitary from a fictitious South-East Asian country of Selanesia, who is accused of human-rights violations which puts Brandon at odds with both Clare and Chancellor Arnold. Meanwhile, Valerie helps Steve, Kelly, and fellow KEG members Griffin and Muntz, plan the theft of a rival college's mascot, a huge stuffed bear, during homecoming weekend. Donna skips the caper to spend some time with Ray at his family's pumpkin stand. Also, Andrea is depressed when Jesse is spending more time studying and bar tending than being with her. Andrea then meets a mysterious guy, named Peter, at her local laundromat. Elsewhere, Dylan forces Valerie to keep his financial situation a secret. But when Valerie later walks in on Dylan cheating on her with a local prostitute, she vows revenge.

Kelly's disapproval of her mother's return to modeling increases when she learns that her baby sister Erin is involved. Meanwhile, the Walshes finally learn that Dylan is broke when the proposed Peach Pit expansion leads to an exposure of his finances. Valerie, still smearing with both anger and pity after catching Dylan cheating on her, confirms to them that Dylan is bankrupt. Jim then offers Dylan financial assistance. But the growingly misanthropic Dylan is too far gone to accept any sympathy and rudely blows off Jim. While Donna has trouble balancing the affections of both Griffin and Ray, she sees Griffin's sleazy other side when he whisks her away for an overnight trip to Catalina Island and attempts to seduce her. David's love experiment by handcuffing himself to Clare's bed to win her affections backfires when her father shows up and takes her out to dinner, leaving David alone. The next morning, when Steve and David come over to Dylan's house to talk about the Peach Pit After Dark expansion, they find Valerie in bed with Dylan. Steve, being the person he is, draws the wrong conclusion and responds by punching Dylan in the face.

On Halloween night, Donna becomes scared when her two suitors, Ray and Griffin, finally cross paths during a costume party at the KEG house. After being shunned by the Walshes and the rest of the gang, Valerie considers moving back to Buffalo, but decides to stay after learning that her mother has suffered a nervous breakdown. Steve unfairly blames Dylan for having a tryst with Valerie, and breaks his business agreement with the Peach Pit After Dark. Valerie also fails to bewitch Dylan who's sinking deeper into depravity with hard drugs, while Brandon reacts coldly towards Valerie after finding out that she skipped out on Steve's frat party to be with Dylan after she promised everyone to stay away from him. Meanwhile, Andrea's not pleased to see the cross necklace her baby daughter Hannah receives at a Day of the Dead celebration. Also, Clare talks David into a UFO hunt for the night in the desert near Barstow, CA.

Dylan enters a rehab center after all of his friends conduct an intervention. Valerie and Clare, left out of the intervention, spend the day shopping and bonding with each other. But after one day, Dylan runs away from the clinic with a little of Valerie's help. Dylan then alienates Valerie more with his continuing drug use and attitude in which she walks out on him for good. Kelly gets a modeling offer from Seventeen magazine. Meanwhile, Ray has dinner with Donna's wary parents Felice and John. Also, David and Clare's homemade video of their lovemaking disappears and turns up in the home of Donna's parents.

Brandon and Dean Trimble are caught in the middle of a conflict when several Jewish students, including Andrea, protest the scheduled campus appearance of a controversial, anti-Semitist, African-American orator, in which the demonstrations and near-riots disrupt Kelly's photo shoot for the magazine. Meanwhile, Donna plans a party for Ray's 25th birthday. In the hospital, Dylan spends the time talking with his mother Iris, while his drug dealer pays an unexpected visit and threatens him not to tell the police about their business.

Jim gets Brandon tickets to the Rolling Stones' Rose Bowl concert, but a hearing to determine the legality of his presidency is moved to the night of the concert. Jesse argues that Brandon is already the legitimate president, as he has been calling senate meetings to order; the challenge to the presidency is denied. Brandon takes Andrea to the concert. Kelly gets backstage access through the magazine, while braggart Steve has trouble getting in at all after a hippie steals his wallet. Ray and Donna work as vendors and see the show free of charge. David and Clare go to the concert even though they claim to hate the group, but have to turn to a scalper when Mel lets them down. Steve and his father force Dylan out of the Peach Pit After Dark. He agrees to sell his shares when Steve, Nat, and Willie (the cook) visit him in rehab. Dylan and Valerie agree to stop seeing each other, as he doesn't want to involve her in his problems. During group therapy, Dylan has a confrontation with Charley, an older man who likes to bully other patients instead of dealing with his own problems. Charley seeks Dylan's help to finally overcome his addiction.

Emily flies back from Paris to attend a seminar at La Jolla. She asks Brandon to meet her at the airport, claiming to have just a four-hour layover. She actually has a week until the beginning of her seminar, but Brandon breaks her heart by revealing that he is dating Kelly. When he sees her back to her hotel room, they share a passionate kiss. Steve and Griffin organize a holiday rave at an abandoned house. Valerie helps them out in the hopes of getting back in Steve's good graces. David and Clare accidentally post the notice about the event on a computer bulletin board for lesbians, who constitute most of the guests. The house has very poor wiring and continually blows fuses. Griffin uses too much electricity, and the house catches on fire. Ray rescues Steve and Valerie, who were fooling around in one of the bedrooms. Kelly and a girl named Allison are trapped in a downstairs bathroom with no means of escape. The firefighters try to reach them as they are engulfed by flames.

In the aftermath of the house fire, Kelly suffers second and third degree burns on right wrist, ear, and the whole right side of her neck. Allison's injuries are much more severe, but she maintains a positive attitude. Brandon is racked with guilt because of his feelings for Emily. Kelly does not react well when she learns that Emily is still in town. She calls Dylan to discuss her insecurities and Brandon visits him in search of advice. Kelly believes that Brandon is only staying with her out of guilt, but Emily eases her mind when she reveals that he expressed his love for Kelly before the fire. Meanwhile, Steve feels guilty for the house fire and calls upon his father, Rush, to help out. Griffin's father hires an accomplished attorney for Steve and Griffin where Rush advices both to plead guilty to criminal trespassing in order to avoid jail time. Steve and Griffin receive two years of probation and community service... and are forbidden from operating dance clubs or parties for two years. Steve is furious to learn of this provision, especially after he discovers that Griffin in fact stole the keys from his father's real estate office to the house, rather than obtaining permission to use it for the rave. Steve tells his father that he didn't know about what Griffin did, but Rush (being more arrogant and narrow-minded) refuses to believe Steve and tells him not to ever call on him again for help. Afterwards, Steve physically attacks Griffin and orders him to leave the fraternity. Elsewhere, Ray's perpetual bad mood confuses Donna. He explains that his mother always begins drinking around the holidays, as his drunkard father left her on Christmas... after pushing her down the stairs and causing her to have a miscarriage. Andrea and Jesse throw a party for Hannah's first Hanukkah. Jesse obtains work as an attorney for those who cannot afford representation. He is frustrated by the court treatment of a single Mexican immigrant father, whose kids are taken away when a babysitter neglects them. At the end, Dylan comes home from rehab and is greeted by a letter from a stranger who found Erica's bathroom note pleading for his help.

Donna's snobbish mother, Felice, puts Ray's feelings for her daughter to a test by offering him money to stop seeing her, while Ray's alcoholic, chain-smoking, redneck mother, LuAnn, goes Christmas shopping with Donna. Differing family traditions cause tension between the Catholic Jesse and the Jewish Andrea. Clare introduces David to her father during a faculty Christmas party who finds common ground with him over their love of music. Meanwhile, Dylan goes to his old friend, Christine Pettit, from the FBI to help him find his stolen money. Unable to help Dylan, Christine then contacts an alcoholic, former FBI agent-turned-bounty hunter/private investigator, named Jay J. Jones (Jonesy), who contacts Dylan on Christmas Day and offers to track down his money in exchange for getting a full share of it. Brandon is left alone to care for the recovering Kelly when Jim and Cindy leave town to visit Brenda in England and Valerie leaves to visit her mother in Buffalo. Also, Nat hosts a special holiday feed-the-homeless dinner at the Peach Pit.

Steve begins community service at a retirement home and meets Saul Howard, an ex-entertainer with Alzheimer's disease, whom Steve confides in with his problems. Dylan asks Jesse for advice when he is told to appear in court over his car accident. Meanwhile, Valerie returns to Beverly Hills after spending a sunny Christmas vacation in the Caribbean, instead of visiting her mother in Buffalo, which prompts a cold response from Kelly who openly admits to everyone that she despises Valerie and doesn't trust her for a second. Ray declines a request by Donna to perform at the opening of the Peach Pit After Dark nightclub. While working at the hospital as a resident intern, Andrea has a run in with an attractive doctor named Peter Tucker.

On their semester break, Dylan and Brandon take a motorcycle trip through California and they end up being subjected to slave labor by a Native American sheriff for trespassing on a reservation, which helps dissipate the tensions between both of them over Kelly. Meanwhile, Kelly benefits from attending psychology workshop seminars run by a famous, psychology professor named Patrick Finley. Donna tries to help Ray get over his stage fright on the eve of his debut at the grand opening of the Peach Pit After Dark. Steve spends the weekend moping over his father, Rush, taking over the Peach Pit After Dark club from him.

Dylan recruits Valerie to help him and Jonesy pull off a caper in Punta Brava, Mexico to reclaim his lost money after they find Kevin and Suzanne. Jones and Valerie pose as a couple at a resort hotel where they befriend Kevin and Suzanne (aka: Karl and Kitty Cavendish) in order to get to know more about where they keep Dylan's stolen money. But when Dylan wants to rescue his sister Erica, Jones backs out, leaving Dylan to carry on a rash rescue attempt alone. In Beverly Hills, Brandon feels threatened by Kelly's relationship with Professor Finley when Brandon starts dealing with criticism by the dean concerning the professor's tenure and his unorthodox teaching methods. When Brandon meets Professor Finley for the first time to question him about his teaching methods, he sees another side to Finley who lashes out at Brandon which causes a rift between him and Kelly.

Kelly's continued involvement with Professor Finley and his conflict against the college faculty to preserve his tenure frustrates Brandon since he knows about Finley's hostile and paranoid attitude. Meanwhile, Valerie seeks a reward for helping Dylan recover his money and asks both him and Jones to cut her in on a large share. David's old flame Ariel Hunter, now a music company rep, returns and woos Ray to get him to sign a music deal, much to Donna's worry. Also, Andrea flirts with trouble when she starts seeing Peter while Jesse is away on business.

Steve tries to secure the R&B group "Jade" for a Valentines Day telethon at the Peach Pit After Dark. Meanwhile, Brandon coaxes Kelly away from Professor Finley and his work at his newly opened commune, but only for the moment. After moving out of the Walshes and into a hotel suite, using some of Dylan's money, Valerie comes onto Ray who's having problems with Donna and pressures him into an affair. Ray's mother, LuAnn, figures out that Ray cheated on Donna when he doesn't come home after that night, and covers for him when Donna comes calling asking of Ray's whereabouts. Also, Andrea with Jesse meets Peter and his wife, but that doesn't disrupt their feelings for each other.

When a rainstorm hits Beverly Hills for the week, Andrea gets a job at the hospital where Peter works just to be near him. Valerie refuses to accept a "no" from Ray in response to a relationship with him. Meanwhile, Dylan goes undercover as a new Finley follower at the commune to spy on him and Kelly, while Brandon questions Chancellor Arnold and then seeks out a former Finley follower to speak to Kelly about Professor Finley's true racial and unethical ways.

An unseen psycho, who may be the creepy grad student Lenny, creates a crime wave on the CU campus which includes the rape of a coed, worrying everyone. Meanwhile, Ray decides to leave town after Valerie buys the Peach Pit After Dark from Steve's father for her own use. Peter tempts Andrea to stay out late at the hospital with him, so she gives in to his requests to sleep with him. Also, Dylan is tempted by Valerie to fall off the wagon again. Seeking answers to his path in life, Dylan tracks down and finds his rehab friend Charlie Rollins, a motel owner, where Charlie tells him his idea of writing a movie screenplay to make money and asks Dylan for a little help.

Brandon and Clare have the same bad dreams involving "Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek and announcer Johnny Gilbert while competing with each other and Andrea for a spot in the show's college tournament. After learning from Andrea about her affair, Jesse moves in with Dylan and talks about the possibility of divorce while Dylan tries to reason with him to make up with her. Meanwhile, the reconciliation of Mel and Jackie gives David hope of reuniting with Donna whom he still has feelings for.

During spring break, Donna visits Ray now living in Portland, Oregon and David tags along to visit his mother only to learn that she has disappeared. So David, along with Donna and his father, Mel, follow a strange trail of the past to find her, while Ray begins to show increasingly signs of jealousy over Donna helping David find his mother. Back in Beverly Hills, Dylan undergoes hypnosis by a therapist in his research to find ideas for a screenplay for Charlie, while Valerie considers and gets a tattoo for herself.

Sagging attendance at the Peach Pit After Dark draws David back to the stage with a talented new partner named Juwan, a young gang member whose performance is threatened by violence from a disgruntled band. Valerie flies to Reno, Nevada to ask Ray to come back to the After Dark when Donna lobbies for his return. Meanwhile, Brandon becomes a guide to Warren, a young and bright, but immature and spoiled genius coveted by Chancellor Arnold to attend the university. Also, Dylan has a disturbing experience with hypnotic regression.

Kelly finally becomes a cover girl on Seventeen magazine, but hesitates to continue modeling due to her fire burn scars. While coping with her newfound stardom, Kelly learns that she has a new admirer: the horribly scared Alison from the fire that night. Ray returns to Beverly Hills and to a bravo return appearance at the After Dark. But Ray's mother LuAnn, in an intoxicated state, ends up tipping off David and Clare about his unfaithfulness to Donna with Valerie. After David and Clare confront Ray, and then Valerie, they decide not to tell Donna to avoid hurting her feelings. Meanwhile, Andrea thinks about her future after Jesse is offered a law position in Idaho. Also, Dylan continues talking with Charlie about the correct script for themselves.

Hypnotic regression leads Dylan to a past life where he is Billy McCoy, a gun-slinging outlaw in the Wild West, until he meets an upper-class woman (in the form of Kelly) to redeem his outlaw ways. Meanwhile in the real world, while Kelly goes to New York with Steve to meet with modeling agencies, Valerie turns her sights on Brandon who is hoping to be re-elected student body president. But Brandon runs into all kinds of problems when news of college tuition for undergraduates will be increased, he is criticized for not looking after the students best interests. As a result, Brandon's political rival, Alex Diaz, enters the race as a new candidate and wins by a landslide.

Dylan makes summer plans for a trip around the world with Kelly while Brandon counters with a marriage proposal, forcing her to make a decision. Donna tries to cope with Ray's growing hostility as they confront their differences. Meanwhile, Andrea and Jesse go through a tearful going away party at West Beverly high school before leaving town to go to Yale. Also, Jim gets a promotion which means moving to Hong Kong.

The gang goes to Palm Springs for the national KEG/ALPHA fraternity/sorority convention, where Steve tries to find the perfect woman for himself after he rejects the blind date his father sets him up with. But Steve gets more than he bargained for when he meets a shady women named Elle. Kelly spends a day shopping with Alison in which David and Clare misinterpret their relationship as something else. Jim and Cindy put their house up for sale before moving away to Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Donna brings Ray along to make up with him, but later regrets it when he injures her during a fight, while he manages to stay on the good side of her mother. In another part of town, Dylan and Charlie meet with Tom Rose, a mobster-type businessman as a potential backer for their film who agrees to finance their movie, but only if Tom's beautiful, but untalented mistress, gets the lead role.

In Palm Springs, Brandon reacts coldly to Kelly after mistakenly thinking that she and Allison are more than friends; he considers surrendering to Valerie's advances toward him. Things get even worse for Brandon after he's arrested for driving Valerie's car when he's pulled over by a traffic policeman, who finds Valerie's marijuana stash in it. Meanwhile, Steve finally learns Elle's secret of being "more than a woman." Donna decides to give the possessive Ray a second chance, and rudely blows off Valerie, revealing she's figured out that Valerie seduced Ray. Also, Tom Rose and his thugs threaten Dylan with death when they catch him phoning agent Christine Pettit to make a background check of Mr. Rose, for they know something about Dylan's father's murder. This prompts Dylan to terminate his partnership with Charlie and return to Beverly Hills, determined more than ever to find the mobster who ordered his father's killing.

Brandon returns to Beverly Hills from his summer job in Boston and at Steve's advice, he helps set up a destructive rave party in his parents vacant house. Valerie welcomes Ginger LaMonica, a visiting friend of hers from Buffalo who's as wild and devious as she, and has an eye for Brandon. Meanwhile, Kelly returns to Beverly Hills with a new boyfriend named Colin Robins, a young artist whom she met while modeling in New York City. Donna hosts a party on her parents yacht, while trying to hide her doubts about her future relationship with Ray. Also, Dylan becomes more and more obsessed with avenging his father's death when he visits his family's storage locker and talks with his father's former prison cell mate.

The gang helps Brandon repair the Walsh house after it falls out of escrow, and Steve decides to move in with him and Valerie. Kelly prepares to celebrate her 21st birthday party at the Greek Concert Hall with the gang. Ray becomes the prime suspect in the theft of money and several jewelry items from Donna's parents and others. But Valerie exposes Ginger as the culprit which at the end is revealed to be a scam for the gang to get to like Valerie again. Meanwhile, Dylan goes off in search of the mobster, Anthony Marchette, who was the mastermind of his father's death and decides to commit himself to a personal revenge against him.

As the gang returns to college for their junior year, Dylan shadows and befriends Antonia "Toni" Marchette, the daughter of his father's murderer. Meanwhile, Brandon joins the college newspaper and must deal with Susan Keats, the no-nonsense, stubborn editor and hard-core feminist, who's not very eager to have him working there. Valerie meets Colin for the first time and reveals that they have known each other from a past fling between them years ago which bothers Kelly. Steve's sweet class schedule goes sour when he is forced to hire a math tutor in which Clare volunteers to help him. Also, Ray gets a big audition chance while Colin displays his big canvas the After Dark club.

Brandon and Susan cover the Tournament of Roses Royal Court tryouts in which Kelly, Donna, and Clare are candidates. After his successful return to the stage, Ray gives a command performance to the 11-year old daughter of a record company president. Meanwhile, Toni begins to get to Dylan while he develops feelings for her. Also, Kelly becomes jealous when Colin attends the Rose Ball with Valerie, and Steve tries to find an out to his math tutoring from Clare by tapping in on an Internet dating system.

After David's mother attempts to kill herself, it turns him into a recluse and it brings back bad memories for Valerie over her father's suicide. Meanwhile, Toni invites Dylan and his friends over for dinner at her father's mansion where Toni's bodyguard, Bruno, confronts Dylan that he and Marchette know all about him and his father. Also, Brandon finally negotiates a date with Susan, but dating and newspaper politics sometimes don't mix. Elsehwere, Nat and his chef, Willie, try to catch an elusive mouse at the Peach Pit that's hurting their business, until Donna comes to their rescue.

Kelly, Donna, and Clare decide to take a "just girls" road trip in which Valerie spoils their fun by insisting that she come along. Soon, the trip becomes unpleasant when secrets from their pasts come into the light with Valerie admitting that she has feelings for David, and that she seduced Ray months earlier for no reason aside from the ultimate thrill of it. Donna becomes angry at Valerie, and then at Clare who admits she knew but did not say anything. In a turn of events, the four of them end up stranded for the night in convent after their car breaks down. Valerie also convinces Donna to break up with Ray knowing that he is physical abusive. Back in Beverly Hills, Steve rents out the Walsh house (Casa Walsh) to a movie crew to shoot a porn flick. Meawnwhile, Toni's father comes face-to-face with Dylan over him seeing her. Also, Brandon and Susan's relationship heats up even more.

Valerie can't decide what to do when a professor sexually harasses her, because of her bad reputation as a sociopath and a compulsive, pathological liar. When the professor, Hayward, gives Valerie a 'D' on her term paper after she refuses his advances, David tries to persuade her to press charges, while Susan tries to get Brandon's help to find dirt on the professor for her latest news story. Meanwhile, Dylan and Toni communicate through Bruno after her father forbids Dylan to see her. Kelly refuses to go to Colin's art exhibit when she finds out that there is something going on between him and his agent Claudia Van Eyck. Elsewhere, Clare and Steve plan a romantic night together at a fancy hotel. But naturally, nothing goes as planned. Also, Donna continues her quest to become Rose Queen.

At a Halloween party at the Peach Pit After Dark, a mysterious gypsy named Madame Raven shows up, in which David buys a love potion from her to increase his growing relationship with Valerie, but Steve and Clare accidentally get it instead and end having a very sordid night together. Susan also attends the party with Brandon where she becomes more confused then ever over where their relationship is heading. After Ray decorates the beach front apartment with pumpkins in an attempt to spruce up his sagging relationship with Donna, he has a violent reaction to her new romantic interest, a college football player named Joe Bradley. Colin unveils his new mural at the After Dark, which was inspired by Kelly. Meanwhile, Toni questions her father over his history with Dylan's father who admits knowing Dylan's father promoting her to run to Dylan for comfort.

A major earthquake hits L.A. which traps Susan and Brandon in an elevator with a pregnant woman who goes into labor. Meanwhile, his friends are rocked after Dylan's announcement about his and Toni's engagement. While Donna continues to try out for Rose Queen, she finds a picture of her mother taken during a 1969 Rose competition, while at the same time, Ray's therapist warns Donna that he has a history of being abused as a child by his father and he may harm her.

On the eve of Dylan and Toni's wedding, Marchette sends his thugs to kill Dylan to prevent it from happening. But gets thwarted by the gang's plans for the happy couple. Kelly and Donna throw a bachelorette party for Toni at the beach apartment with male strippers, while Brandon organizes an uneventful bachelor party involving a card game at the Walsh house. The next day, Dylan and Toni finally get married. But afterwords, Marchette requests a meeting with Dylan after failing to dissuade Toni from her marital plans, and plans an ambush to take care of Dylan. Bruno learns about his boss' plans to murder Dylan and tries to warn him. But Bruno's warning comes too late when the plan backfires with Toni taking the bullets by mistake in a drive-by shooting. Meanwhile, Ray threatens Donna after she breaks up with him to attend the wedding with Joe Bradley... just as Ray's therapist had warned her.

Donna's mother, Felice, confesses a past indiscretion to her about her involvement in the Rose Bowl tryouts of 1969, causing Donna to question her own innocence. Meanwhile, bounty hunter Jay J. Jones returns and asks Valerie for help in a divorce case he has by posing as a prostitute in a sting operation to catch the husband in the act. A revenge-seeking Ray charges Joe with battery over their Halloween encounter, resulting in Joe being suspended from CU's homecoming football game. Also, Steve tries to protect the CU mascot, the Golden Condor Head, from the rival college. Brandon mourns the departure of Dylan from Beverly Hills, and Susan encourages him to write a paper about Dylan's plight.

Donna invites NFL quarterback Steve Young over at Casa Walsh for Thanksgiving, one of two surprises she plans for Joe's birthday on that same day. But Donna later learns that she and Joe have a thing in common: they both disapprove of premarital sex. Meanwhile, the absence of Susan and Colin weigh on Brandon and Kelly who find old feelings returning to each other. Steve becomes a surprise hit at Clare's father's faculty party. Also, Valerie disdains cooking help from David's mentally unbalanced mother.

Joe's assault and battery trial begins where Donna is caught in a lie on the witness stand, and Brandon gets a national byline for his coverage of the trial. Meanwhile, the sociopath Valerie once again puts her manipulative skills in action when she tells Colin and Susan about Brandon and Kelly's romantic liaison at Thanksgiving to break them up, while Kelly sees a different and kinder side to Colin when they spend time with her sister Erin.

Ray Pruit returns to Beverly Hills as Donna and David's first video-production assignment for MZA. Meanwhile, Colin prepares to flee the country while Valerie asks Brandon and a reluctant Kelly to help her in finding him. Joe decides to quit football and choose a new course for his life by moving back to his hometown in Pennsylvania and wants Donna to come with him, but she declines. While Steve is still incapacitated by his broken jaw, Carl takes Clare out on a date who becomes wistful over Carl's memories of her mother.

The increasingly manic-mannered David takes Valerie, Steve and Clare for a wild weekend to Las Vegas where his increased drinking and gambling threaten to turn the events bad, and Ray Pruit is performing at their hotel. David ends up picking up two prostitutes and takes them to a seedy motel where they drug and rob him. David is forced to call Donna for help who arrives in Vegas to comfort him. She yells at Steve, Clare, and Valerie for letting David get out of control. Meanwhile, Kelly finally asks Mark to spend the night with her. Also, Brandon befriends Melanie, a diminutive young woman passing through town and who gives him advice on his future career.

Dylan enters a rehab center after all of his friends conduct an intervention. Valerie and Clare, left out of the intervention, spend the day shopping and bonding with each other. But after one day, Dylan runs away from the clinic with a little of Valerie's help. Dylan then alienates Valerie more with his continuing drug use and attitude in which she walks out on him for good. Kelly gets a modeling offer from Seventeen magazine. Meanwhile, Ray has dinner with Donna's wary parents Felice and John. Also, David and Clare's homemade video of their lovemaking disappears and turns up in the home of Donna's parents.

Jim gets Brandon tickets to the Rolling Stones' Rose Bowl concert, but a hearing to determine the legality of his presidency is moved to the night of the concert. Jesse argues that Brandon is already the legitimate president, as he has been calling senate meetings to order; the challenge to the presidency is denied. Brandon takes Andrea to the concert. Kelly gets backstage access through the magazine, while braggart Steve has trouble getting in at all after a hippie steals his wallet. Ray and Donna work as vendors and see the show free of charge. David and Clare go to the concert even though they claim to hate the group, but have to turn to a scalper when Mel lets them down. Steve and his father force Dylan out of the Peach Pit After Dark. He agrees to sell his shares when Steve, Nat, and Willie (the cook) visit him in rehab. Dylan and Valerie agree to stop seeing each other, as he doesn't want to involve her in his problems. During group therapy, Dylan has a confrontation with Charley, an older man who likes to bully other patients instead of dealing with his own problems. Charley seeks Dylan's help to finally overcome his addiction.

Emily flies back from Paris to attend a seminar at La Jolla. She asks Brandon to meet her at the airport, claiming to have just a four-hour layover. She actually has a week until the beginning of her seminar, but Brandon breaks her heart by revealing that he is dating Kelly. When he sees her back to her hotel room, they share a passionate kiss. Steve and Griffin organize a holiday rave at an abandoned house. Valerie helps them out in the hopes of getting back in Steve's good graces. David and Clare accidentally post the notice about the event on a computer bulletin board for lesbians, who constitute most of the guests. The house has very poor wiring and continually blows fuses. Griffin uses too much electricity, and the house catches on fire. Ray rescues Steve and Valerie, who were fooling around in one of the bedrooms. Kelly and a girl named Allison are trapped in a downstairs bathroom with no means of escape. The firefighters try to reach them as they are engulfed by flames.

Steve tries to secure the R&B group "Jade" for a Valentines Day telethon at the Peach Pit After Dark. Meanwhile, Brandon coaxes Kelly away from Professor Finley and his work at his newly opened commune, but only for the moment. After moving out of the Walshes and into a hotel suite, using some of Dylan's money, Valerie comes onto Ray who's having problems with Donna and pressures him into an affair. Ray's mother, LuAnn, figures out that Ray cheated on Donna when he doesn't come home after that night, and covers for him when Donna comes calling asking of Ray's whereabouts. Also, Andrea with Jesse meets Peter and his wife, but that doesn't disrupt their feelings for each other.

Donna's snobbish mother, Felice, puts Ray's feelings for her daughter to a test by offering him money to stop seeing her, while Ray's alcoholic, chain-smoking, redneck mother, LuAnn, goes Christmas shopping with Donna. Differing family traditions cause tension between the Catholic Jesse and the Jewish Andrea. Clare introduces David to her father during a faculty Christmas party who finds common ground with him over their love of music. Meanwhile, Dylan goes to his old friend, Christine Pettit, from the FBI to help him find his stolen money. Unable to help Dylan, Christine then contacts an alcoholic, former FBI agent-turned-bounty hunter/private investigator, named Jay J. Jones (Jonesy), who contacts Dylan on Christmas Day and offers to track down his money in exchange for getting a full share of it. Brandon is left alone to care for the recovering Kelly when Jim and Cindy leave town to visit Brenda in England and Valerie leaves to visit her mother in Buffalo. Also, Nat hosts a special holiday feed-the-homeless dinner at the Peach Pit.

Kelly's senses alert her to be suspicious of Valerie's true unwholesome colors when she catches her smoking pot and she naturally makes a big fuss about it. But to Kelly's surprise, she cannot get a sympathetic ear. Steve refuses to believe Kelly, thinking that she's just jealous. Even Brandon is skeptic and tells Kelly to give Valerie the benefit of a doubt. However, Donna doesn't seem to care and tells Kelly that what Valerie does in her spare time is none of their business. Later when Kelly sees Valerie at the Peach Pit drinking and flirting with Dylan, she immediately tells Steve. But when then both confront her, Valerie (a true master of manipulation) convinces Steve (but not Kelly) that it was Dylan who made a pass at HER. All in the meantime, Valerie begins to grow suspicions of Dylan's cash-flow state when she discovers him stealing money from the Peach Pit to support himself. Meanwhile, Steve decides to revitalize the Peach Pit by throwing a rave party to boost business. While working on a video project with David and Clare, Donna meets a musician and carpenter named Ray Pruit. Also, Andrea juggles college and child care.

Kelly's continued involvement with Professor Finley and his conflict against the college faculty to preserve his tenure frustrates Brandon since he knows about Finley's hostile and paranoid attitude. Meanwhile, Valerie seeks a reward for helping Dylan recover his money and asks both him and Jones to cut her in on a large share. David's old flame Ariel Hunter, now a music company rep, returns and woos Ray to get him to sign a music deal, much to Donna's worry. Also, Andrea flirts with trouble when she starts seeing Peter while Jesse is away on business.

Ray Pruit returns to Beverly Hills as Donna and David's first video-production assignment for MZA. Meanwhile, Colin prepares to flee the country while Valerie asks Brandon and a reluctant Kelly to help her in finding him. Joe decides to quit football and choose a new course for his life by moving back to his hometown in Pennsylvania and wants Donna to come with him, but she declines. While Steve is still incapacitated by his broken jaw, Carl takes Clare out on a date who becomes wistful over Carl's memories of her mother.

Brandon, now the new student body president of CU, has his first challenge when he is pressed into action by some human-rights activist students who are against the chancellor's friend Quintaro, a visiting Asian dignitary from a fictitious South-East Asian country of Selanesia, who is accused of human-rights violations which puts Brandon at odds with both Clare and Chancellor Arnold. Meanwhile, Valerie helps Steve, Kelly, and fellow KEG members Griffin and Muntz, plan the theft of a rival college's mascot, a huge stuffed bear, during homecoming weekend. Donna skips the caper to spend some time with Ray at his family's pumpkin stand. Also, Andrea is depressed when Jesse is spending more time studying and bar tending than being with her. Andrea then meets a mysterious guy, named Peter, at her local laundromat. Elsewhere, Dylan forces Valerie to keep his financial situation a secret. But when Valerie later walks in on Dylan cheating on her with a local prostitute, she vows revenge.

An unseen psycho, who may be the creepy grad student Lenny, creates a crime wave on the CU campus which includes the rape of a coed, worrying everyone. Meanwhile, Ray decides to leave town after Valerie buys the Peach Pit After Dark from Steve's father for her own use. Peter tempts Andrea to stay out late at the hospital with him, so she gives in to his requests to sleep with him. Also, Dylan is tempted by Valerie to fall off the wagon again. Seeking answers to his path in life, Dylan tracks down and finds his rehab friend Charlie Rollins, a motel owner, where Charlie tells him his idea of writing a movie screenplay to make money and asks Dylan for a little help.